Saturday, May 26, 2012

WoW Trading Card Game (TCG) Loot Cards & Archives Booster Packs

The WoW Trading Card Game has always been an interesting branch of the World of Warcraft product line. The booster packs for the WoW Trading Card Game have a chance at containing the more rare loot cards. These loot cards contain a code for an item that can be used in the World of Warcraft game. These loot cards are fun additions to the game that can include new mounts, new companion pets, and new vanity items, such as tabards or toys. Many of the rare loot cards are able to be sold for hefty amounts on ebay and other sites as the loot cards are hard to find and without a ton of luck, would require purchasing a bunch of WoW TCG booster packs for a chance at a rare loot card.

Archives Booster Pack Box Sale

Recently, I spoke with Elvine on Twitter regarding the Archives expansion pack booster boxes on sale from Amazon. We discussed the loot card distribution and the odds of making a profit by buying the sale priced boxes and selling the loot cards. Elvine had already order a set of 4 of the WoW TCG Archives expansion booster boxes. He granted me permission to use his experience and results in a blog post, as I found the notion rather interesting and thought that you might too.

The WoW TCG Archives Expansion

The Archives expansion for the WoW Trading Card Game is a special release that also includes some of the popular loot cards. By design, the Archives expansion is a 190 card set of reprinted cards from the "best of" the first 3 years of the WoW TCG, but done in all foil. The set contains some valuable and popular loot cards. Each pack has a chance to contain loot cards, but the really lucky may get one of the 4 rare mounts:

Spectral Tiger

X-51 Nether Rocket

Riding Turtle

Big Battle Bear

Uncommon loot card possibilities include:

Robotic Homing Chicken (Rocket Chicken Companion Pet)

Banana Charm (Monkey Companion Pet)

D.I.S.C.O.

Fishing Chair

Common loot card options include:

Paper Flying Machine

Tabard Of The Flame

Papa Hummell's Pet Biscuit

Sandbox Tiger

The Archives booster boxes contain 24 of the 10 card booster packs and each booster pack contains 9 game cards and 1 crafting OR loot card. So for $39.95 you have 24 chances at pulling loot cards. The notion perked my interest, so I dug a little deeper to try and find out the distribution pattern for the loot cards. As per the FAQ on WoW TCG Loot Cards, the current loot card distribution (for sets after the March of the Legion expansion) is as follows:

Commons - 20 to 21 per case, at least 1 per expansion box.

Uncommons - 2 per case, or 1 in 6 expansion boxes, some rare cases have 1, where other rare cases have 3.

Rares - 1 per case, or 1 in 12 expansion boxes, some rare cases have none, while other rare cases have 2.

The important thing to realize and not get overly excited about guaranteed rare loot cards is that when dealing with TCG boosters you are looking at 3 main product packages. There are Booster Packs, Booster Boxes, and Cases.

Looking at the odds and loot card distribution show that even if you buy an unopened full sealed case, you aren't guaranteed to get a rare mount loot card. There is so much randomness built into the loot card distribution that it is still a gamble, even at the reduced sale prices.

Elvine's Loot Card Results From 4 Archives TCG Booster Boxes

Elvine purchased 4 sealed booster boxes, which is a total of 96 booster packs. The packs were opened live on Elvine's Twitch livestreaming channel. Here are the loot card results from the 96 packs.

Box #1

1 Tabard of the Flame (Landro Longshot)

2 Paper Airplane

Box #2

2 Pet Biscuits (Papa Hummel's Old Fashioned Pet Biscuits)

1 Riding Turtle (Saltwater Snapjaw)

1 Banana Charm - Monkey Pet (King Mukla)

4 Sandbox Tigers

Box #3

1 Sandbox Tiger

Box #4

1 Tabard of the Flame

The results are a bit crazy and just go to show that the TCG loot card distribution is almost completely random. 13 Loot cards total and 8 of them, including the sole rare and sole uncommon, all coming out of the same sealed booster box. Boxes 1, 3, & 4 are complete duds, where as, box 2 is the only one with loot cards worth more than the purchase price of the booster box. So think twice before rushing off to buy some sealed Archives booster boxes in hopes of making money selling the loot cards you find. Odds are you won't be able to open enough loot cards to make it worth your investment unless you get lucky and obtain one of the boxes that hold the rare mount loot cards.

Even Cheaper Archives Booster Packs

If you are still interested in trying your shot at the WoW TCG Loot card lottery, consider Amazon for single booster packs. Amazon currently has single Archives booster packs for only $1.25 each, which is cheaper than the sealed box sale price. You lose the benefit of having a sealed booster box, but as shown above, there is no guaranteed distribution from buying a sealed box or case. So next time you are on amazon and need a few more dollars to reach the minimum purchase total for free shipping, consider tossing in a few WoW TCG Archives booster packs. You may just get lucky and find yourself a super rare loot card mount.